Falling Slowly
by Ellephantee
Summary: April O'Neil has always longed for something out of the ordinary, she didn't expect she'd find it in the Hamatos. Especially not in Raphael, but slowly, they're falling. Human!Turtles.


It wouldn't stop screeching at her. Groaning, a half-asleep April O'Neil rolled over and slammed her hand into her alarm clock. If she hadn't been so tired, she would have laughed about the damage done to monstrosity next to her. Pulling herself to a sitting position, the teenager delicately unraveled the braid she had weaved her natural red-orange hair into the evening before. Wavy locks of hair cascaded down to right above her feminine chest. Pulling her groggy thoughts together, she realized it was just another Monday morning, no different than any other.

She threw together her outfit of the day lazily, a yellow tank top covered by a military green hoodie and a new pair of jeans. Deciding to skip breakfast, April picked up her brown messenger bag and rolled her eyes as her dad lazily shuffled through papers at his desk. "Have a great day, April," she muttered to herself, trying to convince herself it was from him instead. Slamming the door to their apartment behind her as she began her trek to school, April missed her father's sullen "I'll be working late."

April was a fifteen year old with more fire in her than a chimney. She had a heart shaped face with delicate facial features. Her father had always said she had gotten her prominent chin from him and he joked that it meant she would always be able to keep her chin up no matter what the situation. Freckles splashed across her upper cheeks as if stars in the night. Her eyes were soft and a beautiful sapphire blue beneath long lashes. The sides of her eyes crinkled whenever she smiled or laughed, which honestly hadn't been in a while. Her lips opened to reveal perfectly straight teeth thanks to years of braces earlier.

Turning towards the elevator, the redhead dragged herself towards the end of the hall. Her eyelids suddenly feeling like huge weights at the thought of how her day would look today. April's mind wandered into her memories from the week of school before, she let out a sigh as she realized this week would be exactly the same. The teenager would go through the same routine of being ignored and avoided by her classmates. What April had ever done to deserve such treatment was beyond her, but at this point, she didn't really care. It had taken three weeks into the school year to decide her classmates weren't worth her time. Being labeled as an "outcast" had damaged some of her fiery pride, but not for long, she wiped it off as if it were mud on her cheek.

Exiting her apartment complex, her senses became more alert. New York City wasn't the safest city at 6:45 in the morning. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes and pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up, thankful for combat boots as she trudged through puddles of water from the rain they'd received the night before. Stormy clouds still hung over the city's head, reminding everyone a flash flood could begin at any minute. '_Dang, isn't the city dark enough already?'_ April mused to herself. After a minute more of thinking about the grayness that had swallowed her home, she pressed earbuds into her ears to distract her fears of what may hide in the shadows she was passing.

Below April laid a whole world she was blissfully unaware of, for the time being.

* * *

"Uhh, like _ow_, dude!" Michelangelo muttered as he rubbed his head. "C'mon Mikey. Get up," Leonardo instructed, having no patience left for his younger brother. The boy followed Leo's directions and stood, still rubbing his head as he walked over to join his brothers. "Good job, my sons." Hamato Yoshi, also known as 'Master Splinter' or 'Sensei' to the boys, walked to his four kneeling sons. "Hai, Sensei!" they all replied in unison. The Sensei nodded, "Your training is complete for today. We will continue tomorrow morning." The youngest Hamato cheered as he and his brothers filed out of the room, all going in different directions.

The first brother out the door of the dojo was Raphael, the third oldest of the four brothers. He quickly made his way to his room and slammed the door shut, thankful for the hours he would now be able to spend alone. Running a hand through his short, dark brown hair, he panted. Training had been a beating today. 'Splinter must've had more nightmares' he thought to himself. After showering, he changed into his favorite white t-shirt and ripped dark wash jeans. The ninja laid back against his headboard and reached behind his pillow, his hand jostled around, searching for his desired pile of comics he kept as a guilty pleasure.

Finally taking a moment to relax, Raph had only flipped through a few pages before he hear a soft tapping upon his door. "Go away," he called to his brother, not even pulling focus away from the comic in his hands.

"Well, it's your turn to pick up the pizza, so, up and at 'em" The voice Raphael recognized as being Leonardo muttered, obviously frustrated. "Sure thing, _fearless_," growled the boy lying on the bed. He heard his older brother groan and listened for his footsteps signaling he had walked away before moving.

Raphael grabbed a black hoodie from his closet and slipped out of his room, trying not to bring attention to himself as he walked through the living area. "Hey, Raph, no onions this time, okay?" Donatello looked up from his computer to grab his brother's attention. "Yeah!" Mikey laughed, "Or else we're gonna have to lock onion breath here in his room for the next twenty-four hours!" Typing something into his computer, Donnie could be heard mumbling, "That really doesn't sound half bad..." Michelangelo rolled his eyes, a smile still dancing on his lips.

Jumping the turnstile, Raphael trudged along the paths in the sewer tunnels, trying not to touch the murky water below. He had grown up here in these tunnels, their map burned into his brain and heart. Climbing up the ladder and pushing the manhole cover away was no challenge for the muscles the teen had spent many an hour developing. Pulling himself up into a nondescript alley, he pushed the manhole cover back into it's place and pulled his hood up, not wanting the attention of passersbys.

He had to admit, being in the world above ground brought a small thread of jealousy into his heart. He loved his home away from the people he passed everytime he made the journey to the streets, but there was something about how abnormal his family's life was that struck him. Splinter had explained time and time again why their family must hide in the tunnels. It had begun before Splinter had even adopted the brothers; their sensei was trying to escape an old enemy that would continually seek him out, and he had finally no choice but go below the surface. It was there that he had found four little boys, left for dead. With the tender compassion still left in his heart, he took the children to be his own. The eldest, a five-year-old Leo, had easily accepted him as their new father and told him their names, each named after a renaissance artist. After converting an abandoned subway station to a livable space, they made their permanent residency there.

Growing up in the sewers had been the real adventure as Splinter had started teaching them all ninjitsu at an early age. Leonardo, being the eldest, had picked up on Splinter's teachings first. "He was strong-willed from the beginning," Splinter would often say of him. Donatello, the second oldest, was the next to be trained alongside his brother, happy in his progress until Raphael had joined them. Raphael's instinct of toughness was evident in his training, even in his early years, he progressed quickly and Donatello often found himself a level below his younger brother, not having his same competitive spirit. Mikey was the last to begin training, his laid back personality prevented him from ever becoming competitive or anxious to advance, unlike Leonardo or Raphael.

Violently making physical contact with someone broke Raph from his thoughts. Almost knocking himself off balance, he whipped around to see what had just hit him so hard. A man was sprinting down the street, against the traffic of people. His curiosity and longing to clobber someone mixed efficiently and suddenly found himself running after the man, dodging people here and there. The supposed criminal, very aware of the teen behind him, took a hard left into an alley.

'_Dumb move_,' Raph smiled to himself.

* * *

April picked her head up from the desk. Had the bell really just rang? It wasn't her imagination? "I expect a full report in my hands my Monday! Have a nice weekend!" her teacher smiled. The teenager jumped from her seat, organized her messenger bag and bolted from the building. "Hey, Red! Wait up!" Casey Jones' voice cut through the cold air as he slid down the stair rail to meet her at the bottom. "'Sup?" he smiled.

"Hey, I'm not up to hanging out or tutoring today, I'm worn out," April faked a smile for his sake, and waved, her way of letting him know she wasn't in the mood for a conversation. Casey frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, "How about tomorrow?" The redhead wanted to groan at his stubbornness, '_I just want to get home,'_ she whined to herself. "Yeah, sure, that's fine. See you then," she turned away from him and had only taken a step before hearing his sweet Casey Jones charm. "Sweet, it's a date then, later Red!" She spun around only to yell, "it's not a date!" to an empty space.

'_Casey, you'll be the death of me,'_ April sighed and finally left the school perimeter. She was so absorbed in her drowsy thoughts of how a good a nap would feel at this moment that she lost her attentiveness of the environment around her.

A few blocks over, Raphael was having the time of his life; he lived for the thrill of keeping the streets safe, whatever that may be. Turning into the alley, his eyes scanned for the man he had been following seconds before. A swift kick at the back of his knee and Raphael was down, confusion sweeping through his mind. "Stay outta my way, punk," the man spat at him from behind before taking off again. Raph pushed himself up and raced to where his attacker had gone, only to find him jumping into a dirty white van a few paces away. The vehicle roared to life and flew off before the teen could even hope to get there. Leveling a last glare at the van, he noticed the outline of what looked to be a foot on the backdoor. He filed away the sight for later.

Growling at the fact he had let the criminal get away, his stomach reminded him the reason he had come up here in the first place. 'I'll make up for it tonight,' he promised himself as he snaked his way through crowds to get back to their favorite pizza shop. He was about to open the door when the sound of a speeding car approaching reached his ears, his grip left on the door handle and he spun on his heels to see the same foot outline on the same white van as before. Deciding this was his second chance, he raced after the vehicle, this time much more subtly, he was a ninja after all.

After running with the van a few blocks, it's brakes shrieked to a halt. Raphael clung to a wall, out of vision of the man that got out of the vehicle. Two other men joined him, exiting from the back, these new ones looking much more professional than their counterpart. "Are you sure they'll be here?" one whispered as they joined the shadows in an alley behind an apartment complex. The ninja spotted a fire escape in the shadows and quietly tucked his body in a ready position above the three, tightening the red mask around his head that he had tucked into pocket before leaving home.

Y'know, he ain't gonna be happy if we don't bring 'em to him by tonight," one growled.

"If you're wrong about this, I'll beat your skull in, nimrod," said another.

Shut up! Someone's coming."

Raph's mind roamed with possibilities of who they were trying to catch. He'd read a similar storyline in his comics and he suddenly took pride in knowing that this was the same thing his favorite hero had done. Craning his neck to see who was approaching, he was caught off guard by the whispers of "it's her!" below him. A teenaged girl, who didn't look much older than him came into his view. 'What do they want with a teenaged girl?' he mused to himself, but didn't have much time to think as one man had left the shadows in favor of muffling the teen from behind.

"What? Hey!" April yelled as a gritty hand came over her mouth. '_Oh crap, muggers,'_ fear quickly drowned out any other thought in her mind. She missed Raphael's leap to the ground as she was more focused on how to get away. Raphael furrowed his eyebrows, looking more intimidating than the devil himself, "let her go and I promise I won't hit you too hard," he smirked. Amidst the confusion of her attackers, April bit down of the hand covering her mouth. The owner of the hand pulled back, yelling out creative expletives. Making a break for it, the redhead didn't get too far before a voice growled in her ear. "Not too fast, girlie," arms came around her and yanked her harshly away from any possible way out.

The ninja was too preoccupied fending off one of the thug's attacks to notice April's attempted escape. The man he was currently dueling with threw a sloppy punch to Raph's face and he took the opportunity to catch the man's fist and twist it until he cried out. Kicking him in his stomach, the thug flew backwards into a pile of garbage. "Who's next?" Flashing a signature smirk, the ninja backflipped over the next available ruffian's head. Raphael hit a pressure point in the back of his neck, while sweeping his legs from under him. 'Thank you, Master Splinter," Raph mused.

April's captor's arms were so tight around her that she could feel a sudden loss of oxygen. She was beyond panicked, there was someone fighting off her attackers, but she couldn't make out the figure, they were sticking to the shadows. The man holding her suddenly began running towards the street, trying to escape before the shadow caught him. Raphael pulled a shuriken out of his belt and turned to the final criminal, "you're not goin' anywhere." The hothead let loose a shuriken and watched it soar through the air straight to it's desired destination, the back tire of their van.

"Aw, no man! C'mon don't hurt me and the car," the girl's captor stopped and pleaded, realizing he had nowhere to run to.

The ninja flipped himself away from the natural light, as he got closer, keeping it to neither the victim or the attack could see him. 'Leo wouldn't even be this good,' he told himself smugly. "My boss ain't gonna be happy if he finds out you messed up his plans!" the thug called out, slowly backing out the other way of the alley, "he's gonna have his people come and find you." Raph almost laughed at the bluff.

"_Put the girl down and walk away_," Raphael growled, commenting to himself how he would give the man a beating either way.

April struggled against his grip, trying to stiffen her body to make it harder to get a grip on her. Unfortunately, her captor was much bigger than her and escape was looking impossible. Turning his head to look at his unconscious accomplices, the thug flinched; whoever was in this alley with him was good. "W-who are you?" Raph leered in the darkness, enjoying himself. "You're never gonna find out," he whispered to draw the maximum amount of fear out of the man opposite him.

Realizing the victimized girl must have been terrified by this point, the ninja cut the small talk and rushed to her attacker, hiding behind him. "Boo," he whispered into the man's ear before punching him straight in the face as he spun around. April gasped at her attacker dropped unconscious, almost bringing her down with him. She quickly darted to the other side of the alleyway, too much in a state of shock to even recognize she could flee from the situation now.

"That broken nose ought to teach him a lesson," her liberator said in a gruff voice, she made a mental note that he sounded like he was in his teens as well. Raphael's attention quickly snapped to the girl who was trying to catch a glance of him. She sharply inhaled, obviously still shaken up from the encounter. The Hamato son's curiosity got the best of him and he found himself opening his mouth to speak, "Man, what did you do?" Fear still crippling her, she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Getting impatient as the teen in front of him obviously wasn't going to respond any time soon, Raph took a step up the fire escape ladder clinging to a building, brushing off any disappointment from not getting an answer. "Wait!" April's voice finally found her, "Thanks for... that. I have no idea who those guys were."

Taking a step back into the alleyway, he let the light hit him for the first time, illuminating him to her. "Well, I got nothin'," was all he had to offer on the subject.

His cheekbones were the first thing she noticed about him. They were so sharp, well, really everything about his face was sharp. His eyes, a beautiful green color were focused slowly on her. His eyebrows were furrowed, or at least she thought they were. The crimson mask covering a portion of his face kept her from studying more of his features. "We should probably go before they wake up," April snapped back to reality, her eyes still locked on him. "Call the police, have them pick these idiots up," Raphael stated, no emotion to be found in his voice.

"Oh, okay," April replied, slightly disappointed he had nothing else to say to her. Turning from the teenager and making it back onto the sidewalk, she realized she didn't catch his name. "Hey, one last thing," she spun around, realizing she was now alone again. Remembering how close her apartment was, she pulled herself away from wanting to try and follow her hero. "Or not, whatever," she murmured to herself.

Raphael clung to the back of the brickwall as he waited for her footsteps to signal her leaving. Breathing a sigh of relief, he tore off his mask and entered back into the traffic of people, trying to finally finish the task he was given in the first place. Walking past the white van, he pulled out his phone and took a picture of foot symbol before moving on beyond it. The ninja entered his favorite pizza parlor and found his mind wandered to events prior as he stood in line, waiting for the family's desired meal. The girl he had saved, her attackers had devised a plan to get to her. Specifically her. A small voice in his head called out to him, telling him she probably wasn't safe. Mulling a few ideas over, he decided to check back in on the area tonight. He wasn't one to stay away from a possible beat 'em up session.

One brisk walk through the sewers later, Raph was greeted with his youngest brother nearly tackling him. "What took you so long? My stomach is growling so loud I thought it had mutated into a whale!" Mikey whined, already bouncing away with the pizza box. Raphael didn't answer him, deciding instead to seek out the smartest Hamato brother. He took a sharp turn to the room established as "Donnie's Lab", as the sign on the door reminded him. "Hey Don? You in there?" he rapped his knuckles on the door. Raphael heard his brother murmur a small, "Yeah, come on in," meaning Donatello was focused in his work.

"Oh, Raph, hey. I'll be there for dinner in a minute," the teen waved his brother off, returning to small machine in his hands.

"Actually, I need you to look at somethin'"

"Uh, sure. Whatcha got?"

Raphael pulled the phone that Donatello himself had constructed out of his pocket and tossed it to his mechanic brother. "What am I looking at here?" Donnie raised an eyebrow. Raph leaned over and zoomed in on the symbol on the back of the van. "Oh, that. Uh, I don't think I've ever seen it before, but I can run it on an image search and see what I get," the taller brother offered. Raph nodded, "Great, just let me know."

"Hey Raph!" Donnie called out to his brother as he made his way out of the lab. The hot tempered brother spun around, his face expressionless. "What does it mean to you?" Raphael shrugged before pushing the door open and jumping in on a night of pizza and old martial art movies picked out by Leonardo.

* * *

April had never been so happy to turn off her lamp and stare into the darkness. Her day had been a mess and she was beyond tired of thinking about it. She inhaled, waiting before exhaling so she could listen to the stillness. About this time she would normally be able to hear her father snoring at his desk, desperately tired from his eighth cup of coffee wearing off. The redhead inwardly sighed, trying not to dwell on the emptiness she felt within the apartment and her heart. Pulling at her shirt to distract herself, her mind floated back to the events today, but for the first time, not on her attackers but on her so called "hero".

A slight blush graced her cheeks as she remembered his flattering physical qualities. He looked to be around her age, but he was built much bigger than anyone at her school. 'He obviously worked out,' she thought to herself, her blush deepening. Trying to tear her mind away from thoughts of his body, she remembered his mask. 'Why would he need a mask? Does he save people regularly?' she asked herself, 'he must be some sort of vigilante... God knows the city needs someone out there stopping crime.'

Her sleepiness overtaking her thoughts, the girl pushed her head deeper into her pillows as she slowly drifted asleep, oblivious to the world around her. Had she been awake a minute longer, she would have heard the rustling above her as a masked ninja leapt onto her apartment's roof. Raphael had pulled himself away from "The Chinese Connection" just to check on the area. Glancing to where his battle had happened hours ago, he saw no trace of the thugs except their van, which now had a boot on the tire. He let out a short laugh at the sight.

Taking a seat on the ledge of the roof, he hung his legs over the street. Enjoying the feeling of serenity that came with the quietness of nighttime. Every now and then you could hear the sounds associated with living in a city, stray animals, groups of kids vandalizing public property, speeding cars, but it was all music to Raph's ears. He loved this city with a fiery passion.

His phone vibrating in his pocket tore him from his thoughts; it was a text from Donnie. 'Just got results from an image search, hurry back.' Doing one last scope of the building's perimeter, Raphael flipped back into the shadows, returning home.

* * *

**A/N: So this is a revision of a story I had on a different account. I said "screw it" and clean slated it! R&amp;R, thanks for viewing and have a good day!**


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